Angela Jefferson

Herbert Christopher, a grateful Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery patient who received cochlear hearing implants from David Haynes, MD, has funded the training of otolaryngology fellows and leaders in Alzheimer’s disease care through several outright endowed gifts and additional gift planning with his estate.

The Today Show’s Maria Shriver spotlighted a landmark, years-long study into the connection between heart health and Alzheimer’s disease, and the urgency to boost study enrollment—particularly among people of color who are disproportionally impacted yet historically underrepresented in research.

The third annual Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day featured numerous presentations and concluded with a keynote address by Suzanne Craft, PhD, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Wake Forest University.

Vanderbilt researchers took part in an online panel discussion this week sponsored by the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement (WAM), hosted by journalist and author Maria Shriver, the organization’s founder, and NBC news anchor Richard Lui.

A research team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reports in Neurology that greater stiffening of the aorta, the main artery in the human body, is associated in older adults with increased Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology as reflected in a range of neurochemical indicators measured in cerebrospinal fluid.

Leaders at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have announced that the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center (VMAC), currently housed in the Department of Neurology, will become a freestanding institutional center.

With the aid of an $18.2 million, five-year grant renewal from the National Institute on Aging, the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project (VMAP) will advance interdisciplinary research into abnormal brain aging and cognitive decline in older adults, with continuing emphasis on the role of blood flow changes in the heart and brain.